Not a Day Too Late
by Koyuki
Summary: Haru gives Yuki a present the day after Valentine's Day. HaruYuki


A/N: Because I fail, I'm writing a day-after-Valentine's Day fic. And plus, it's cuter this way.

For 30 kisses theme #23. candy.

Pairing: Haru + Yuki (slightly gen-ish)

Warnings: fluff, shounen-ai. Yuki's a bit cynical too.

Disclaimer: I do not own Haru, Yuki, or Fruits Basket. No copyright infringement intended.

* * *

Not a Day Too Late

Ah, St. Valentine's Day, the (commercialized) traditional day of chocolate exchange between enthusiastic teen-aged girls who were oh-so willing to open their purses for over-priced, specially wrapped chocolates; how Yuki hated it so. He despised the passion of his zealous admirers as they handed them the chocolate, despised having to accept it politely (as was cordially required), despised having to carry the hundreds of packages home only to stuff them away in an already-overcrowded closet full of gifts, only to be shunned and ignored.

More than anything else, he hated the over-bearing fangirls who tried to hug (and kiss) him since even showing up to school on the day put him in more danger than he preferred ever to be in. Valentine's Day was the perfect excuse to jump Souma Yuki, the Prince, and few girls didn't try to take advantage of it.

_What a waste of time and money,_ he thought as he dragged his bag full of chocolate up the stairs. Dropping them on the ground, he mused sadly that most of them weren't going to see the light of day again and cursed the commercial industry's scheme for crushing young girls' hearts. Good thing it wasn't his fault though.

Sighing, he shoved the last of the chocolate boxes into the closet to sort out another time. That is, if he ever got the chance. Having finally finished "going through" his Valentines, Yuki plopped down on his bed, glad the evil holiday was finally over.

* * *

The day after Valentine's Day, a day for chocolate lovers everywhere to splurge on low-priced, specially wrapped candy no longer necessary with the passing of love's annual holiday, was always a generally better day for Yuki. For one, it was always the day he received the least amount of confessions, love letters and presents, pleas and broken hearts, as most girls having gotten their fair share the day before.

The other reason was that he finally received the peace and quiet he longed for which gave him the perfect opportunity to do things he usually didn't have time to do. Such as the neglected student council paperwork that had been put off due to yesterday's festivities.

Yuki ran his hand through his hair and continued to plow through large stack that had to be read, signed and organized, lovingly left for him by his fellow members that had decided they just didn't care. Rubbing his temples, Yuki felt the eminent onslaught of a headache coming on and tried his best to ignore it as he mad out the blurring words on the page before him. Really, one of these days he was going to learn to bring asprin everywhere he went.

Pulling all his concentration together to focus on the document before him, Yuki failed to notice as someone entered the empty classroom, pulled out the chair in font of him, and carelessly plopped a bag of chocolate kisses in front of him. Yuki's eyes shifted from his paper to the parcel on his desk and frowned.

Strange. No girl would miss St. Valentine's Day upon her life, even with a fever, sick in bed. She would soon rather physically die than to break the time-honored tradition and die of embarrassment from having to pass out chocolate the day afterwards. No one should be giving him chocolate today.

Yuki's eyes went from the chocolate to the sender before it. Oh.

"Haru," Yuki cleared his throat, noting he sounded just a bit hoarse and set down the paperwork he was holding on the desk. "What brings you here?"

"Yo," Haru answered in his traditional form of greeting and nodded towards the bag of chocolate. "I just had a present for you."

Yuki raised an eyebrow. "I... thank you," he began, "but I think you're a day too late."

Haru looked at Yuki for a moment, confused, and thoughtfully considered its meaning. "Oh." Then, "Who said it was a Valentine's Day present?"

Now it was Yuki's turn to be confused. "It's not?" he asked curiously. "But I thought—"

"Well, it's not St. Valentine's Day is it?"

"No, but—"

"So why would it be?"

There was a long moment of silence as Yuki considered the thought.

Deciding his earlier theory was quite valid, he said, "Because it's the day _after_ Valentine's Day, so I thought you might be giving me one, just a day late. Which is slightly strange."

Haru looked incredulously at Yuki again. "Is there a rule or something about not being allowed to give chocolate the day after Valentine's Day that I didn't know about? Because if there is, I would like to know about it."

"There's no rule, Haru," Yuki stated. "But it's considerably odd because you're breaking the tradition of giving chocolate on Valentine's Day."

"Really?" Haru shrugged nonchalantly. "As far as I know, I'm allowed to give gifts to the person I love any day of the year."

_Oh._ Yuki blushed. "Um, thank you, Haru. ...I think?"

"Why don't you try it? I know you don't really like chocolate, and you have enough of it at home, but I couldn't think of anything else to give you."

Yuki eyed the chocolate. Well... since Haru did get it especially for him, and it _wasn't_ a Valentine's Day gift. "Sure, why not."

Carefully unwrapping one of the chocolate kisses, Yuki plopped it in his mouth. "It's good," he noted. Surprisingly so, considering he despised chocolate with a passion. "Where did you get it?"

Haru smiled. "It's a secret."

* * *

Finally finishing all the paperwork, Yuki returned home late that night and dug through the piles of chocolate he had received the previous day just to see if any of them were quite like Haru's. Having finished every single chocolate after the other left, Yuki was rather disappointed that Haru refused to tell him, no matter how many times he asked.

After sampling a few, Yuki noticed that the ones that tasted the worst were the ones that were the most decoratively wrapped, and thus, most of them being so, were immediately thrown out without further taste-testing. Coming to the last chocolate box, Yuki realized almost disappointingly that no one had gotten him anything that was half-decent. Still, there was a poetic justice to the fact that Haru's not-Valentine's was the best, and none of the others could compare.

Yuki vaguely wondered what would be an equivalent not-White Day present in return for the gift Haru gave him. After all, it wasn't like he needed a reason to give Haru a present any other day of the year either.

owari

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A/N: Okay, the ending fails, feel free to eat me. But it's late and I have to sleep now. I might or might not write an accompanying white day fic, but I'm leaning towards no... 


End file.
